Perhaps we have become accustomed to rough preaching. Perhaps we don’t listen as carefully unless we are shocked by an abrasive style. Perhaps our senses are dull through the constant overload of information.

I invite you to come and bask in the warmth of the pastoral care of the much-loved Puritan Thomas Brooks. Let this first passage from his outstanding book, ‘Heaven on Earth’ enliven you to the treasures of puritan literature.

And if you are a leader in the church, perhaps these words will refresh you once again, in your high calling, and in God’s own love for His Bride.

Brooks’ opinion of Christian Believers
‘Beloved in our dearest Lord: You are those worthies of whom this world is not worthy. You are the princes that prevail with God. You are those excellent ones in whom is all Christ’s delight. You are His glory. You are His picked, culled, prime instruments which He will make use of to carry on His best and greatest work against His worst and greatest enemies in these later days. You are a seal upon Christ’s heart…You are the anointed of Christ…You have the greatest advantages and the choicest privileges to enable you to try truth, to taste truth, to apply truth, to defend truth…You have the next place to Christ in my heart…’ (from his introduction to ‘Heaven on Earth’)
On non-believers needing to be convinced of sin
‘Men must first see their sins, they must be sensible of their sins, before they can repent of their sins…Till he sees he is out of the way, he walks still on.’ (p.221)

‘The sweetest joys are from the sourest tears; penitent tears are the breeders of spiritual joy.’ (p.222)
On why the Christian loves Jesus
‘The true bred Christian loves Christ for Christ; he loves Christ for that internal and eternal worth that is in Him.’ (p.239)

On Prayer
‘As a painted fire is no fire, a dead man no man, so a cold prayer is no prayer…Cold prayers are as arrows without heads, as swords without edges, as birds without wings: they peirce not, they cut not, they fly not up to heaven. Cold prayers do always freeze before they reach to heaven.’ (p.261)

‘Christ hath a a full purse, a noble heart, and a liberal hand.’ (p.264)

‘The tears of the saints have such a kind of omnipotency in them, that God Himself cannot withstand them.’ (p.316)

On Final Perseverance
‘That ship will never be split upon the rocks, whose anchor is in Heaven.’ (p.282)
The supremacy of the Spirit in growth of the believer
‘Nothing makes the heart delight more in the love, study, practice, and growth of holiness, that in the glorious testimony of the Holy Spirit.’ (p.303)
All quotations and page references are taken from Heaven on Earth, Banner of Truth.